That's exactly how CNN reported it!
BTW, how you perceive things doesn't matter, it's how Russia sees the result that's important.
No, it is how the real people of the Donbas and the Ukraine see things. I send equipment for two Ukrainian Donbas soldiers that we know personally. They are brave and patriotic. They are great guys.
The speaker of the Russian Duma wants to reverse the “illegal” transfer of Alaska to the United States. Maybe they can hold a referendum in absentia and just declare it part of Russia too. It would be about equally legitimate as declaring that Donbas is now Russia.